Gifts
by LuckyBlackCat
Summary: Gadolt tells Juju we all have something that makes us special- a gift or a talent- even though we might not be aware of it. Juju eventually works out what his own might be- with a little help from Reyn.
1. Part 1

**A/N I wanted to right about Sharla, Gadolt and Juju and somehow ended up with this...thing...I hope you enjoy it anyway. Juju is stupid and annoying but I like him anyway. We were all stupid and annoying once xD**

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_**Part 1/2**_

"Don't worry, Juju," said Gadolt. "It just wasn't meant to be, but there's always next time."

"Sharla passed first time," said Juju, sticking his bottom lip out in a pout.

Most children in Colony 6 enlisted in the Preliminary Rifle Training Programme, which took six weeks to complete. At the end of the programme, they were put through a short test. Passing it allowed them to move onto further training if they wished- failing meant repeating the programme again from the beginning. It was an effective but frustrating process. While Juju had expected to fail the first time, failing for the second time had sunk his spirits.

"Well, Sharla is a very special lady," said Gadolt gruffly, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"It's not fair, she's good at everything," said Juju. He was thinking of how Sharla was always the one people came to if they were injured- one of the old biddies had claimed she had 'a healing touch'. She'd learned a lot of her medical knowledge 'on the job' or from what other members of the colony told her and she was really interested in it. But on top of that, she had been the best of her class at any rifle training she'd enlisted in. Gadolt was always trying to get her to take more rifle classes- but she'd told him she'd only done it 'in case of an emergency'. It struck Juju as rather unfair that she had such great talent at something she didn't really care about.

"Everyone has a gift or a talent, Juju. You'll work out what yours is one day," Gadolt said.

"I want to find out _now_," said Juju.

Juju had wanted his talent to be riflery very, very badly and was bitterly disappointed to find out he'd have to learn how to do it, just like everyone else. He wasn't any good at hand-to-hand combat either and didn't know one end of a wrench from the other, meaning his talent wasn't anything Defence Force related. He sighed morosely.

"Now how about a smile, eh?" Gadolt persisted. "I tell you what, I'll take you out tomorrow, just you and me, and we can practice together."

Juju's face lit up. Gadolt had not taken him out for lessons for a long time, claiming his duties with the Colony 6 Defence Force were taking up all his time. Gadolt was a brilliant teacher- he never lost his temper like some of the rifle instructors did. He gave clear instructions and was happy to repeat the same exercise until Juju could do it every time.

Juju just had one last question…

"Do you know what my gift or talent is?"

"Of course," said Gadolt without missing a beat.

"Then why don't you tell me?"

"Because part of becoming a man is working it out for yourself," said Gadolt with an easy smile.

It was a conversation that lodged itself into Juju's mind. He thought and thought about what his gift or talent could be- but always drew a blank.

He pestered Gadolt about it later that night. They were waiting for Sharla to bring the shopping back so they could eat dinner together. Their house was small and modest- and a lot of things were falling apart- but it had a wonderful atmosphere

"Is my talent being able to sleep through almost anything?" he asked.

"No," said Gadolt, who was cleaning his rifle. He liked to get a good shine on the metal- it helped conceal the age of the thing.

"Oh. Maybe it's being able to do this?"

Gadolt looked up. Juju was double jointed and was fond of making his thumb bend all the way back, so it touched his wrist. Most of the other kids shrieked at this, but Gadolt didn't bat an eyelid.

"No," he said, and went back to polishing his rifle.

"What's all this?" said Sharla, entering the room. She was carrying a basket of groceries- containing the ingredients for their dinner that night. Gadolt got up to take them from her.

"Juju's trying to work out what his gift is," said Gadolt.

"His what?" said Sharla, brow furrowing.

"My gift," said Juju. "Like, you're really good at making people better and Gadolt's great with a rifle."

"Oh," said Sharla. "Well, it's always easier to see other people's 'gifts'," she said frowning. "Hey, I was saving that!" she snapped as Gadolt plucked a piece of fruit from the basket. It was a Sour Gooseberry, one of Sharla's favourites.

"Not unless you give me a kiss," Gadolt teased, holding it above her head with a charming smile.

Juju made the sick noises that were needed for him to fulfil his brotherly duties, and then busied himself by sorting the ingredients out on the kitchen counter. Meat here, fruit there, then vegetables, then stuff like salt…

"You chop the vegetables," he said to Sharla. Then he turned to Gadolt "You carve the meat."

"Yes, sir," giggled Sharla. Gadolt saluted him.

"I'll lay the table…and hurry up, I'm hungry," Juju added good naturedly.

There was nothing remarkable about that evening. There'd been thousands of others like it before and there'd most likely be thousands more in the future. It should have been a forgettable evening.

Except Juju remembered it exactly. He remembered it because it was the last evening they had together before the Mechon took over Colony 6.


	2. Part 2

_**Part 2/2**_

The whirlwind of events that had followed Gadolt's death kept Juju's mind from dwelling on it too much. Sharla had sat him down and explained what had happened to him very carefully and precisely. She did it a monotone that was quite frankly the scariest thing Juju had ever heard- even worse than Xord's loutish tones. While she spoke her eyes looked very shiny. It was like she knew she should be crying but she couldn't quite let the tears out. She told him that Gadolt had become a Face unit- but not one that looked like Xord, one more like this other girl, Fiora.

"So how come this Fiora's fine? That's not fair!" said Juju, put out.

"Hush!" said Sharla, looking aggrieved. "Fiora's not fine, but that isn't any of your business."

Juju had seen Fiora- she was a Mechon girl. She had a really friendly smile and her voice sounded kind. Juju wanted to like her, but the whirs of her body made her sound like a Mechon about to attack. He was unable to completely relax around her.

She continued on, telling him how Gadolt had been forced to attack them- but that he couldn't hit Sharla no matter what. And then how he finally came back to himself, as Fiora had done. But they had been forced to leave him behind…and then when Agniratha collapsed, Gadolt had acted as a shield and sacrificed his life to save them.

"Gadolt saved us all," said Juju.

"In a way," agreed Sharla.

Still, it was hard to stay sad about Gadolt when Reyn was around. Out of all of Sharla's new friends, Juju liked Reyn the best. Reyn always hurtled at problems full on instead of trying to edge around them, and Juju liked that. Whether it was beating up Mechon or simply trying to catch a fish, Reyn gave it his all. It was this quality that made him so similar to Gadolt. Reyn seemed happy to spend time with him when the party was in Colony 6. They often sat by the lake and talked absolute rubbish together- like what would happen if the Territorial Rotbart took on the Immovable Gonzales or the best way of pushing Gogols off cliffs (although Reyn told him to never ever try it…at least not alone).

So he thought maybe…

"Reyn, do you know what my gift is?"

Reyn looked at him like he'd just announced he was taking them all out for dinner at Hoko's.

"You what?"

"Gadolt always said everyone had a gift or a talent. He said I had one too, but he wouldn't tell me what it is. He said I had to work it out but I'm fed up of trying," Juju sighed.

"Aww man…I dunno…what are you good at?" said Reyn.

Juju shrugged. "Not really anything," he mumbled.

"No, you are, you're very good at…" Reyn paused, trying to find the right words. "All of _this_," he said gesturing at the colony around him.

Juju looked at him blankly.

"Well it was you who gave us the list of stuff we needed to, you know, put the colony back together," Reyn said. "Really, a lot of the colony restoration stuff was down to you."

"I didn't _do_ anything, though. I just told other people what to do."

"Yeah but…it's not like anyone could have done anything without you and Otharon sussing out the how and the when and all that stuff," Reyn pointed out.

Juju thought about it.

He thought and thought and thought. He thought about rebuilding the colony- how a lot of his ideas had been discussed in the town hall and then put into practice. It was him that had suggested a park where people could escape into nature. It was him that had suggested the merchants all line one main street so they were easily accessible from all over the colony. It was him that had suggested trying to make the old ether mine operational again. He'd worked out all the materials they'd need to put his ideas in action. He'd rallied the workforces when morale was low and persuaded people into doing his bidding with relative ease.

"So my talent is…telling people what to do?" he said. He was disappointed- he'd wanted his talent to be more…well, _special_.

Reyn shrugged. "Well…something like that…"

"Discussing anything exciting?" said Sharla from somewhere behind them.

"Juju's trying to work out what his gift is," said Reyn, turning towards her.

"Did you really not work it out yet?" asked Sharla, performing the face-palm gesture she was so fond of.

"I think so. My gift is telling people what to do," said Juju.

"That's not quite how Gadolt put it but along the right lines," nodded Sharla. "He said you had 'excellent organisation capabilities'. Remember how you always rounded up the other kids to play huge games of hide and seek round the colony? Oh, and how you always had me and Gadolt dancing to your tune in the kitchen!"

"It's not very impressive," said Juju, pulling a face. "I'd sooner be good at shooting stuff."

"Why? Shooting stuff doesn't get you a place to live," said Reyn. "You can only get so far by shooting stuff. No offense," he added hastily, glancing at Sharla.

"Of course your own gift isn't special to you. You do it so easily you don't realise how hard it is for the rest of us," said Sharla.

"Huh," said Juju. "So it was something as simple as that all along…"

"What's my gift then?" asked Reyn, not wanting to be left out.

"Oh, you have many," said Sharla. "Snoring, burping, eating all our food, tripping over your own feet…I could go on."

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**A/N This may sound odd but I just used this fic to vent really...I'm fed up of hearing people saying they suck at everything because NO they just don't realise what they're good at. This coupled with how someone commented that Juju was useless led to this fic. No-one is useless. **


End file.
